Surgery won’t stop at Pontefract Hospital, health bosses say

David Spereall

Health bosses have denied suggestions that surgery may be stopped at Pontefract Hospital.

Falling numbers of non-emergency operations taking place at the site had led to fears that the hospital was being “wound down”.

And councillors were concerned about knee and hip replacement operations no longer taking place at Pontefract.

But the Mid Yorkshire NHS Hospitals Trust, which runs the site, have given assurances that operations will continue and that more treatment will take place.

In a letter sent to Wakefield Council’s health scrutiny committee, the trust’s director of operations, Jo Haliwell, said: “We are aware that there have been a number of concerns raised by our staff and members of the public who have perceived that the volume of elective (non-emergency) surgical work being undertaken on the Pontefract site is reducing.

“I also know, from discussions with members of the team at Pontefract, that they believe this to be a conscious decision by the Trust to ‘wind down’ the Pontefract site. This is not true.

“The trust has a number of initiatives in place and has taken forward some

actions recently which are aimed at expanding work undertaken at Pontefract

and using the site to its maximum potential.”

The trust’s chief executive Martin Barkley will appear at a meeting of the committee on Thursday, where the issue will be discussed further.